The present invention relates to a quick restoration splice block for use in splicing fiber optic ribbon cables and, more particularly, to a color-coded splice block to ensure that the proper fibers within each cable are mated to each other.
Quick restoration of optical signal paths is essential when failures occur in an optical fiber network. The failures ranges from cable breaks due to contractor xe2x80x9cdig upsxe2x80x9d to environmental damage (such as lightning strikes and cable burn). To repair these types of failures, a communication field technician must find and isolate the damaged section of fiber cable, dig up the cable, and splice the fibers back together. Restoration splicing consists of using a quick, temporary splice that will optically couple the fibers back together.
Most conventional fiber optical cables consist of one or more ribbons, where a single ribbon comprises twelve separate fibers that are bonded transversally to form a single structure, each ribbon thus treated as a single unit within the cable, with a unitary sheathing structure formed to surround the ribbon. In order to mechanically splice a pair of ribbons back together, the sheathing must be removed and the ends of the fibers cleaved and cleaned (to form the best possible endface surface for fusion splicing of the mating fibers). A standard ribbon cable is manufactured in accordance with a standard color code (i.e., fiber No. 1 is xe2x80x9cbluexe2x80x9d, fiber No. 2 is xe2x80x9corangexe2x80x9d . . . , and fiber No. 12 is xe2x80x9caquaxe2x80x9d; each intermediate fiber is also associated with a readily-definable color). This color code will be repeated for each ribbon within the cable. For example, a cable housing 216 fibers will be formed as 18 individual ribbons, with the same color code used in each ribbon. When splicing a pair of ribbons together, it is important that the color code be followed (e.g., the xe2x80x9cbluexe2x80x9d fibers spliced together, the xe2x80x9corangexe2x80x9d fibers spliced together, etc.). In a conventional arrangement, the blue fibers are inserted in the top opening of the splice housing and the aqua fibers are inserted in the bottom opening.
If one fiber ribbon is improperly placed in the splice housing (i.e., xe2x80x9cupside downxe2x80x9d), with the aqua fiber on the top and the blue fiber on the bottom, the signal lines will be xe2x80x9ccrossedxe2x80x9d and communication will not be restored. However, since light will still be coupled from one ribbon to another, the splice would appear to be working properly and the repair technician may not be able to discover the mistake. It would, therefore, be desirable and advantageous to provide a splice element that would eliminate the possibility of xe2x80x9ccrossingxe2x80x9d the fibers in a ribbon cable splice.
The need remaining in the prior art is addressed by the present invention, which relates to a quick restoration splice block for use in splicing a fiber optic ribbon cable and, more particularly, to a color-coded splice block to ensure that the proper fibers within each cable are mated to the fibers in the other cable.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a splice block whose fiber-holding grooves are colored to follow the conventional color-coding scheme in a ribbon cable. That is, the xe2x80x9ctopxe2x80x9d groove in a splice block is coated with a blue layer, the next groove is orange, and so on, with the xe2x80x9cbottomxe2x80x9d groove being colored aqua. In this manner, the repair technician needs only to follow the coloring scheme in the splice block to ensure that like fibers within a pair of ribbon cables are spliced together.
In an alternative arrangement, the coloring may be disposed at the entrance of each groove along the splice block, instead of coloring a portion of each groove. In any embodiment, however, each fiber-holding groove is associated. with one (and only one) of the specific fiber colors of the ribbon and the risk of xe2x80x9ccrossingxe2x80x9d fibers in the splice block is essentially eliminated.
Other and further embodiments of the present invention will become apparent during the course of the following discussion and by reference to the accompanying drawings.